The numbers are impressive.
In Rouen, in Seine-Maritime, 6,591 vaccination slots against Covid-19 were available on Wednesday April 28, according to the site Vite ma dose which lists all the free slots in vaccination centers or in pharmacies.
In Marseille, the number climbs to 11,700. Even more dizzying, in Lyon, 43,000 meetings are offered.
In total, for this day, the platform identified 273,163 vaccination slots in France.
While the government wants to speed up its vaccination campaign - the country exceeded the symbolic mark of 20 million injections on Tuesday - some people today seem reluctant to take the plunge.
In recent days, on social networks, Internet users have been sharing screenshots of these dozens of slots left free.
Under the hashtag #LesJeunesVissentLeVaccin, several of them are calling for the access criteria to be made more flexible, to offer, in particular to young volunteers, the possibility of receiving their first dose.
6,858 doses of vaccines available in my city but since I am not eligible I cannot get vaccinated, some seniors do not get vaccinated when I want to, Mr. President @EmmanuelMacron #LesJeunesVissentLeVaccin 🙏🏻 pic .twitter.com / ZjPc9clM2t
- Chauvin Gwen (@ChauvinGwen) April 27, 2021
As a reminder, to date, only people over 55, people over 50 with comorbidity and on presentation of a medical document, people of any age with a high-risk pathology, as well as some professionals can be vaccinated.
"We have an epidemic which currently causes, on average, 300 deaths per day", recalls Catherine Hill, epidemiologist, interviewed by France 24. And to hammer: "We must therefore vaccinate the population as quickly as possible".
"It made sense, at the start, to vaccinate those most at risk," she continues.
But if, from now on, we have available doses that are not administered to priority people, then we might as well administer them to younger people, ”she continues.
"Unbridling the question of age"
Among the vaccination centers that are struggling to find volunteers: the gigantic Stade de France vaccinodrome.
An ubiquitous situation, while the incidence rate in Seine-Saint-Denis is 550 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, according to data published by Public Health France.
The population is "younger than at the national level", explains Stéphane Troussel, president of the department.
"With the increasing number of vaccinodromes in ĂŽle-de-France and the allocation of additional doses, it is urgent to assume the expansion of vaccination, in particular to active workers who are on the front line in the most affected areas and younger! ", he said on Twitter.
With the increasing number of vaccinodromes in ĂŽle-de-France, and the allocation of additional doses, it is urgent to assume the expansion of #vaccination, in particular to active workers who are on the front line in the most affected areas and the youngest !
- Stéphane Troussel (@StephanTroussel) April 27, 2021
If her first Health Assistant, interviewed on FranceInfo Tuesday, April 27, ensures that all doses are currently finding takers, she concedes "mobilizing waiting lists more and more often", even if it means vaccinating people "off target."
Stéphane Troussel's call is shared by the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, who wishes to "unbridle the question of age".
"It is still a scandal that doses are not used when many people want to be vaccinated. It is time to be more flexible and pragmatic," she said, interviewed on FranceInfo.
For his part, Vincent Maréchal, professor of virology at Paris-Sorbonne University, fears that this waiting period will discourage young people from getting vaccinated when the time comes.
"We are in a country where there is real mistrust vis-Ă -vis the vaccine," he recalls to France 24. "There, we have people ready to get vaccinated but who cannot. It should not be that in a few weeks it will cause a flutter with discouraged people. "
"We know that vaccinating helps protect serious forms of Covid-19," he recalls.
"We also have more and more signs that vaccination makes it possible to limit the circulation of the virus. But for that, it is necessary to vaccinate massively", he insists.
A real shortage of patients
?
During a press conference organized on Wednesday, the boss of Doctolib, an online appointment-making platform, Stanislas Niox-Chateau, however wanted to reassure.
"Vaccination against Covid-19 does not suffer from a lack of requests. At least, in vaccination centers offering Pfizer and Moderna vaccines," he said.
Rather than a shortage of volunteers, he recalls that it is "normal" that an increasing number of appointments are available each day, the number of doses delivered to France increasing each week.
"Every day, Doctolib offers around 250,000 appointments. But every day, these appointments are given," he says, specifying that the waiting time between making an appointment and the injection is currently, on average, nine days.
Stanislas Niox-Chateau explains, however, that he does not have visibility on the profile of people who enjoy appointments, especially those taken at the last minute, for the same day.
"Doctolib puts individuals in touch with vaccination centers, after which they are the ones who choose whether or not they accept off-target people."
"It would also be very difficult to speed up vaccination on Pfizer and Moderna," he added, highlighting the very high rates of use of these two vaccines.
According to figures released by the Regional Directorate of Health, that of Pfizer was 91%, against 89% on March 30.
It stands at 82% for Moderna, against 65% a month earlier.
"Vaccine supplies are improving day by day," says Vincent Maréchal.
“If the demand is there, why not extend vaccination now?” He asks.
"Why not, for example, open up the vaccination but create a skip-the-line system so that priority people remain a priority."
Reassure about the AstraZeneca vaccine
Rather than expanding the vaccination, Stanislas Niox-Chateau, the boss of Doctolib, recalls that there are still many slots available for AstraZeneca in town, with doctors and pharmacists.
The British vaccine is injected at the rate of 45,000 doses per day, when "we could make 100,000 to 150,000," he said, based on figures from the Regional Directorate of Health.
On April 25, the rate of use of the AstraZeneca vaccine, shunned by part of the population, stood at 73%.
However, according to him, this margin should first be used by "7 million French people over 60 who still do not have an appointment".
Olivier VĂ©ran also called on those eligible for vaccination "to rush to their phone or their computer to see if the center closest to them has no slots."
"An expansion of vaccination" would be "premature" at this stage, for his part replied Jean Castex at the exit of the Council of Ministers on Wednesday, without however closing the door "to an expansion of the public" if it was confirmed that 'a "number of available appointments" were "not honored".
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